Delphi Technique

Decline Stage – The fourth stage of a product life cycle. Sales of the product fall off their levels during the maturity (third) stage. This may lead to abandonment or efforts at rejuvenation of the product.

Deduction – A system of reasoning that results in the application of a general principle to a particular situation. See: Induction

Defender – A model representing customer’s brand choice decisions as a function of brand attributes. Key features include the incorporation of heterogeneous customer preferences and the representation of attribute levels in a “per dollar” multiattribute space. Based on the model, several qualitative, normative implications hold regarding the optimal competitive response by “defending” brands against a new market entrant.

Deferred Billing – A billing method that enables customers to buy merchandise and not pay for it in several months.

Degree Of Confidence – The percent of Confidence Intervals that would include the mean of the population if many such intervals based on the independent sample means were computed.

Degree of Freedom – (1) Equal to Sample size minus one when the t distribution is used to estimate the mean of the population or to test its assumed value. There is a unique distribution of t associated with each degrees of freedom. There are no such separate distributions associated with Z. (2) If observed data are arranged for analysis in columns and rows, as they are in a Chi-Square Test, the degrees of freedom are equal to the number of rows minus one times the number of columns minus one.

Delayed Response Effect – A carryover effect evidenced by the lags which occur between the time a marketing expenditure is made and the time purchase delay, recording delay.

Delivered Price – The price which includes transportation charges to the buyer’s establishment. A quoted or invoice price that includes delivery costs to the F.O.B. point, the latter being freight terminal, warehouse, or another location commonly accepted in the particular trade or specifically agreed upon between buyer and seller.

Delivered Pricing – A form of geographical pricing in which the price quoted by the manufacturer includes both the list price and the transportation costs. In such cases, the prices are quoted as F.O.B. destination, meaning the manufacturer bears the responsibility of selecting and paying for the method of transporting the product.

Delivered Duty Paid – Under this contract the seller undertakes to deliver the goods to the buyer at the place he or she names in the country of import with all costs, including duties, paid. The seller is responsible under this contract for getting the import license if one is required.

Delivery Period – The normal time between the placing of an order and the receipt of stock.

Delivery Reliability – The degree to which a seller delivers a product according to the schedule promised at the time of sale.

Delphi Technique – A method of marketing research which may be used to resolve problems involving estimates that can be useful only if made by experts. A group of persons considered competent are asked individually by personal interview or mail questionnaire to express their judgments. After compilation, the results are given to the participants, who may revise their estimates. At no time do the participants meet together. The process may be repeated a number of times. Usually a consensus is reached which can be used as a basis for decision-making. 2. ( marketing research definition) A method of forecasting that relies on repeated measurement and controlled feedback among those participating along the following lines. (1) each individual prepares a forecast; (2) the forecasts are collected, and an anonymous summary is prepared by the person supervising the process; (3) the summary is distributed to each person who prepared a forecast; and (4) those participating in the process are asked to study the summary and submit a revised forecast. The process is repeated until forecasts converge.

Demand – The quantity of product of product a market will absorb at a given time under conditions of specified price, income, promotional activity, and environmental factors. 2. (economic definition) A schedule of the amounts that buyers would be willing to purchase at a corresponding schedule of prices, in a given market at a given time. 3. (business executive definition) The number of units of a product sold in the market over a period of time. See: Demand Curve, elasticity of Demand

Demand Analysis – The attempt to determine why the demand a firm may have has come into being. The market success of any firm rests on its ability to adapt its resources to the market behavior of potential buyers. See: External Stimuli, Individual Change Stimuli, Internal Stimuli

Demand Creation – a series of activities essentially the same as: Sales Promotion. A study of the reasons underlying the demand for a product with the intent of forecasting and anticipating sales.

Demand Curve – The plot of the schedule which shows for all possible prices within the relevant range the quantity of goods the market will absorb, considering the factors prevailing at any one time.

Demand Density – A measure of the extent to which potential demand for the retailer’s goods and services is concentrated in certain census tracts, ZIP codes, or other geographic parts of the community.

Demand/Destination Areas – The department in stores in which demand for their products or services are created before customers get to their destination.

Demand Factors – The elements that determine the consumers’ willingness and ability to pay for products.

Demand,Industrial – The demand includes the goods and services that are required by all individuals and organizations that are engaged in the production of other goods and services.

Demand-Backward Pricing – The act of setting a price by starting with the estimated price consumers will pay and working backwards with retail and wholesale margins.

Demand-Oriented Pricing – A way of setting price that takes into account the nature and quality of market demand for the offering. See: Cost-Oriented Pricing

Demand-Pulled Innovation – Innovation that i s caused or at least stimulated by the needs, wants, or desires of customers. This contrasts with supply pushed innovation. Other terms for these two ideas are market-or customer driven innovation and technology driven innovation.

Demand Sensitivity – The relative rapidity of movement of an item in a retail store. A part of the concepts of turn-over and ROI.

Demarketing -The process of attempting to diminish the apparent demand for a product to the level that the firm can accommodate. There are a number of economic reasons which may prompt this policy in preference to one of expanding to fill the demand.

Demographic Environment – The human population characteristics that surround a firm or nation that greatly affect markets. The demographic environment includes such factors as age distributions, births, deaths, immigration, marital status, sex, education, religious affiliations, and geographic disperson–characteristics that are often used for segmentation purposes.

Demographics – The statistics of an area’s population, or a market, with distinguishing characteristics such as age, sex, income, education,marital status,occupation, etc. delineated. Includes all vital statistics. See: Psychographics

Demography – 1. (economic definition) The study of people in the aggregate, including population size, age, sex, income, occupation, and family life cycle. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The study of population characteristics such as age distribution, income, death rate, etc.

Demonstrator – Usually an employee of a manufacturer but may be an employee of a store, who becomes expert and spends all of his time showing how a particular product works or can be used.

Demonstrator Display – A pop unit which shows the functioning of the product displayed.

Demonstrations, as Retailer Sales Promotion – An exhibition of the product in use or in its ultimate form as an inducement to prospective purchasers. Examples are preparation and dispensing of food products in supermarkets, sampling of beverages in liquor stores, or demonstration of cooking equipment in department stores – all intended to call additional attention to the product or service.

Demurrage – an additional charge made by a common carrier when one of his units is held by the consignee beyond the allowed free time.

Departmentized Specialty Store – A specialty shop in essence, which has become large and in which the various types of merchandise carried are accounted for separately for profit knowledge and general managerial decision-making.

Departments – (1) Large stands designed to assist in the merchandising of the assortment or variety of a product line. See: Pop Advertising (2) See: Department Store

Department Store – The retail institution that probably offers the largest variety the goods under one roof to customers who are invited to the establishment to make their selections. Highly departmentalized for sales and accounting purposes. By census of Business standards it must have at least 25 employees and its merchandise must include apparel, appliances, furniture, home furnishings and dry goods. Combined sales of soft goods and apparel must be at least 20% of total sales.

Dependency Ratio – In an Economy, the ratio between workers and pensioners.

Dependent Variable – In a cause-and-effect system, the outcome which is produced by the effects of certain factors called independent variables. For example, if sales of a retail department vary with the amount of floor space devoted to it, then floor space is the independent or “input” variable and sale is dependent or “response” variable.

Deposit Sale – Same as: Lay-away Sale

Depreciation – The loss in value of an asset due to the passage of time or the making of a number of units of product. See: Obsolescence